Story MRF T20 International Series- Squads announced.

[Prithvi]

With Champions League T20 getting canceled due to various reasons, Board of Control for Cricket in India, Pakistan Cricket Board and Sri Lanka Cricket have decided to utilize the CLT20 window to have a T20 international tri series, across the three nations. Bangladesh Cricket team was also invited, but citing the hectic cricket they've played, the board has denied playing this tournament.

Schedule:

Pakistan v India at Sheik Zayed Stadium, Abu Dhabi.

Sri Lanka v Pakistan at Galle Cricket Stadium, Galle.

India v Sri Lanka at M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai.

Pakistan v Sri Lanka at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah.

Sri Lanka v India at R. Premadasa Stadium, Colombo.

India v Pakistan at M. Chinnaswami Stadium, Bengaluru.

Final: TBA v TBA at Dubai Sports City Cricket Stadium, Dubai.

"This is something new which we wanted to implement in ODIs too, but due to constrains in schedule, we couldn't implement it so far. I'm happy that we are able to do something of this kind, each team gets equal home support and the viewership would also increase and so does the tickets sale." Said Ashley de Silva, the CEO of Sri Lanka Cricket.

Sachin Tendulkar, the former Indian batsman also gave the word of encouragement in these kinds of tours involving in different nations. "This is something which I would definitely have loved to see in my days on field. A T20 league style tournament between countries, something which I always wanted to play. Nevertheless, looking forward for this tournament, there are two high voltage games, and each and everyone in the two countries would be looking forward for those matches because India Pakistan match has become a real rare entity of late."

 

[Prithvi]

SQUADS ANNOUNCEMENT​

The respective boards have announced the squads for the T20 competitions. It was said that Pakistan and Sri Lanka would be continuing with their squads which have competed against each other in the bilateral T20 series in Sri Lanka. As far as India is concerned, there were a few surprises. Harbhajan Singh, Gautam Gambhir and Robin Uthappa were selected after a long gap. Shikar Dhawan was out of the squad due to the injury he sustained, and Ravindra Jadeja was not selected owing to his poor form.

SRI LANKA
Lasith Malinga
Captain
Dhananjaya de Silva
Chaturanga de Silva
Tillakaratne Dilshan
Binura Fernando
Shehan Jayasuriya
Chamara Kapugedera
Nuwan Kulasekara
Angelo Mathews
Kusal Perera
Vice-Captain/Wicketkeeper
Thisara Perera
Dasun Shanaka
Milinda Siriwardana
Jeffrey Vandersay
Kithuruwan Vithanage

PAKISTAN
Shahid Afridi
Captain
Sarfraz Ahmed
Vice-Captain/Keeper
Ahmed Shehzad
Anwar Ali
Imad Wasim
Mohammad Hafeez
Mohammad Irfan
Mohammad Rizwan
Mukhtar Ahmed
Nauman Anwar
Shoaib Malik
Sohail Tanvir
Umar Akmal
Yasir Shah
Zia-ul-Haq

INDIA
M.S. Dhoni
Captain/Keeper
Virat Kohli
Vice-Captain
Suresh Raina
Rohit Sharma
Ajinkya Rahane
Gautam Gambhir
Robin Uthappa
Stuart Binny
Akshar Patel
Bhuvaneshvar Kumar
Harbhajan Singh
Umesh Yadav
Varun Aaron
Mohammad Shami
Ravichandran Ashwin
​

In the meanwhile, Dilshan had announced his retirement from all formats of cricket at the end of this tournament, which makes this an important series to Sri Lanka.